Meet the man who can't stop competing on games shows

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 09:08

WHEN Stuart Craig applied to go on TV game show Supermarket Sweep "for a laugh", he didn't even expect to be picked.

He did get chosen, though, and the experience led to him catching the game show bug – the shopping challenge was to be the first of seven TV quiz appearances the 34-year-old has made so far.

The football coach at Gracemount leisure centre, Mr Craig has just returned from Argentina, where he was a contestant in a game show called Total Wipeout.

After auditions in Glasgow two months ago, he was selected to be one of 20 people flown to Buenos Aires to battle it out against an extreme obstacle course.

He won't give away how well he did in the competition, which is due to be screened on BBC1 in the coming months, but he said: "It was absolutely incredible, I really enjoyed it.

"The competition was the most gruelling thing I've ever done, I really pushed myself."

His first TV appearance on Supermarket Sweep two years ago was not a great success. He said: "We didn't do very well, we made a brave effort and came second."

Nonetheless, he applied to go on the lottery show, Who Dares Wins, where he walked away with 12,500.

He didn't splash the cash extravagantly – instead, he paid off his car loan and had his driveway resurfaced – but the win spurred him on to keep entering.

"I wouldn't say that I'm addicted, but I realised, 'hey, this is easy money'," he said.

Since then, he has gone from strength to strength, though he didn't win any more cash at his next attempts. "Probably the low point of my career was Postcode Challenge with Carol Smilie. She was lovely, but we were first to go home. I did The Weakest Link six weeks ago. Anne Robinson said I was a bit tubby for a football coach, but I told her at least all my packaging was real," he said.

He has also appeared on The Kids Are All Right and the forthcoming Who Dares Sings Christmas special.

Wife Laura, 28, a youth worker, has watched him from their Dunbar home with their 20-month-old daughter Anna, and even appeared alongside him on Postcode Challenge. She said: "I'm proud of him for having the guts to do it. I think he would like to be famous."

He plans to give the game show circuit a rest for a little while, though.

"I think there's such a thing as over-exposure," he said.

"People at work are fed up hearing about me being on the telly."